Tag: Dallas Business News

Strong economic factors, job gains, and population increases have experts predicting strong growth in North Texas home prices in 2015, and a 35 percent increase in home prices over the next three years in the Dallas-Plano-Irving areas.

Local Market Monitor, Inc. released its December 2014 local market reports for North Texas, looking at factors like jobs, migration, housing permits, local market risk premium, and average home prices. Based on those analytics, they say home prices will likely grow 11 percent in the eastern counties of North Texas and 8 percent in the western counties over the next 12 months. Nationally, prices are forecast to increase by 6.3 percent.

They’ve extended their forecast two and three years, as well. In the eastern DFW counties, home values are predicted to increase 11 percent in 2016 and 10 percent in 2017.

In the western counties, home values are expected to increase 8 percent in both 2016 and 2017. The report predicts home prices to increase 25 percent over the next three years, noting that market is currently underpriced 17 percent relative to income.

These reports echo the sentiments of local realtors and real estate experts, who have been crowing about strong North Texas job growth, more buyer and seller confidence, continued low interest rates, and investor demand. Jump to read more!

DFW rents were 6.2 higher last year, averaging $919 per month, but demand still soared, with North Texas leading the nation in apartment rentals, and vacancies at a 13-year low, according to new real estate research from Zillow and MPF Research.

The increased rent translated to an extra $600 million paid to landlords last year, Zillow reported. For North Texans, that meant a median increase of $35 a month, higher than the nationwide rate of $26.

“Over the past 14 years, rents have grown at twice the pace of income due to weak income growth, burgeoning rental demand, and insufficient growth in the supply of rental housing,” he said. “This has created real opportunities for rental housing owners and investors, but has also been a bitter pill to swallow for tenants, particularly those on an entry-level salary and those would-be buyers struggling to save for a down payment on a home of their own.”

I bet big builders like Lennar Corp., Fort Worth-based D.R. Horton, and Pulte Homes are breathing a collective sigh of relief. According to a report from the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, housing starts are up — way up, as a matter of fact — from November 2011.

According to the report, privately owned housing starts are up 21.6 percent year-over-year for November 2012. Housing completions for November are up 16.1 percent over last year, too.

Pair that with a very optimistic column from Dallas Morning News business writer Will Deener. Housing stocks for some of the nation’s largest builders have grown by leaps and bounds over 2012.

“Shares of D.R. Horton, Toll Brothers Inc., Lennar Corp. and other housing stocks are now up more than 50 percent since the year began,” Deener writes in his Dec. 16 column. “These stocks rallied in anticipation of better times in the sector, and that time has apparently arrived. By almost every measure, the housing sector is finally returning to the land of the living.”

We’re hearing that sales of pre-owned homes in many areas of Dallas are up, and that several enclaves are actually seeing home sell for over list price!

So what do you think, is it finally time to tip a glass and celebrate a recovering housing market?

When Barneys New York came back to NorthPark Center in 2006, they made a huge splash with an equally splashy ad campaign. Folks were anxious to have the un-self-conscious luxury retailer back in Big D. It showed the rest of the world that our fair city was on our way back up.

While it appears that Dallas has one of the healthiest real estate markets in the country, and our state has no shortage of millionaires and billionaires, and yet, we’re losing our Barneys?